DEC 21, 2022
Marking the anniversary of the disappearance of Ira Lee Briscoe, friends and family gathered Saturday at People’s Park in West Plains, defying frigid temperatures and biting wind to release 24 balloons, one for each month Briscoe has been gone.
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A Facebook group created in September 2021, “Ira Lee Briscoe ‘Bring Ira Home,’” has a following of almost 2,300. ...
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Posts in the group include comments from those who knew Briscoe as an elementary school student at Glenwood School. Briscoe had cancer as a child, and recovered. His parents, Marilyn and Rodney, are lifetime members of the community. Marilyn has said, as a mother, it was difficult to almost lose Ira to cancer only to have him vanish as a young man and father of a young son who misses him.
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“The community needs to get more verbal about what happened,” says Christi Clarke, administrator of the group and co-organizer of Saturday’s balloon release. She reminded those present that the missing are sons, fathers, siblings and friends with loved ones who need closure.
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Clarke has also been involved in the search for Briscoe for the past two years, including walking waist-high in pond water. She says Marilyn has done that and more: “She will stop at nothing.”
The balloon release was the conclusion of two years of searching the woods, ponds, caves and ravines, talking with law enforcement and the agonizing task of waiting. Briscoe’s father was unable to be there due to health problems.
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